
o • » 



50- 



f • o 







• < O 





^^.^ oV^^^^U^'- ^»bv* :Sim^\ ^^^cs"^ 










• • • \ ' 




o « « 







%<«. *' 







o« ft 



''^n« 






• • • .* ' 




"^r.^ 






Cl>»-« %*»(V 






'.^'^vn. 










'M 























^^ *^ 






^••'''^^^.^^ 4s^ 



MR. WOOD'S VISIT 



CHOCTAW AND CHEROKEE MISSIONS. 



EEPOUT 



MR. WOOD'S VISIT 



CHOCTAW AND CHEROKEE MISSIONS. 



1855 



BOSTON: 

PRESS or T. R. MARVIN, 42 CONGRESS STREET. 

18 5 5. 



•C^T^ 






REPORT. 



At the meeting of the Board held in Utica, New York, 
September, 1855, the Prudential Committee submitted a 
special communication in reference to the Choctaw and 
Cherokee missions, in which they say : '' Since the last 
meeting of the Board, it has seemed desirable that one of 
the Secretaries should visit the Indian missions in the 
South West, for the purpose of conferring fully and freely 
with them in reference to certain questions which have 
an important bearing upon their work. Mr. Wood, there- 
fore, was directed to perform this service ; which he did 
in the spring of the present year. After his return to 
New York, he drew up a report of this visit, and pre- 
sented the same to the Prudential Committee. It is 
deemed proper that this document should be laid before 
the Board at the earliest opportunity ; and it is herewith 
submitted. The results obtained by this conference are 
highly satisfactory to the Committee." 

The report of Mr. Wood is in the following language : 

To the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Com- 
missioners for Foreign Missions : 

I have to report a visit made by me to the Choctaw and 
Cherokee missions, in obedience to instructions contained in 
the folloAving resolutions adopted by you, March 6, 1855 : 

^^ Resolved, 1. That Mr. Wood be requested to repair to 
the Choctaw Nation, at his earliest convenience, with a view 
to a fraternal conference Avith the brethren in that field in 



respect to the difficulties and embarrassments which have 
grown out of the action of the Choctaw Council in the matter 
of the boarding schools, and also in respect to any other ques- 
tion which may seem to require his attention. 

" 2. That, in case the spring meeting of the Choctaw mis- 
sion shall not occur at a convenient time, he be authorized 
to call a meeting at such time and place as he shall designate. 

"3. That on his return from the Choctaw mission he be 
requested to confer with the brethren of the Cherokee mis- 
sion, in regard to any matter that may appear to call for his 
consideration, and that he be authorized to call a meeting for 
this purpose. 

"4. That on arriving in New York he be instructed to 
prepare a report, suggesting such plans and measures for the 
adoption of the Committee in reference to either of these mis- 
sions as he may be able to recommend." 

Leaving New York, March 19, and proceeding by the way 
of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Napoleon, thence up 
the White river, across to Little Rock, and through Arkansas 
to the Choctaw country, I arrived at Stockbridge, April H. 
Including the portions of the days occupied in passing from 
one station to another, I devoted three days to Stockbridge, 
three to Wheelock, six to Pine Ridge, three to Good-water' 
and three to Spencer ; the latter a station of the mission of 
the General i\ssembly's Board. Five days, with a call of a 
night and half a day at Lenox, were occupied in the journey 
to the Cherokee country, in which I spent two days at Dwight, 
and three at Park Hill; my departure from which was*" on 
the llth of May, just one month from my arrival at Stock- 
bridge. My return to New York was on May 31, ten and a 
half weeks from the time of leaving it. 

I should do injustice to my own feelings, and to the mem- 
bers of the two missions, not to state that my reception Avas 
everywhere one of the utmost cordiality. The Choctaw mis- 
sion, when my coming was announced, agreed to observe a 
daily concert of prayer that it might be blessed to them and 



the end for which they were informed it was designed. They 
met me in the spirit of prayer; our intercourse was much 
a fellowship in prayer ; and, through the favor of Him who 
heareth prayer, its issue was one of mutual congratulation 
and thanksgiving. 

The visit, although a short one, afforded considerable oppor- 
tunity (which was diligently improved) for acquainting myself 
with the views, feelings, plans and labors of the brethren of 
the missions. Their attachment to their work, and to the 
Board with which they are connected, is unwavering. With 
fidelity they prosecute the great object of their high calling ; 
and in view of the spiritual and temporal transformation taking 
place around them, as the result of the faithful proclamation of 
the gospel, we are compelled to exclaim, " What hath God 
wrought ! " It was pleasant to meet them, as with frankness 
and fraternal aifection they did me, in consultation for the 
removal of difficulties, and the adoption of measures for the 
advancement of the one end desired equally by them and by 
the Prudential Committee. 

Several topics became subjects of conference, on some of 
which action was taken by the missions ; and on others recom- 
mendations will be made by the Deputation, that need not be 
embraced in this report. In respect to them all, there was 
entire harmony between the Deputation and the missions. 

In their first resolution, the Committee requested me to 
repair to the Choctaw Nation, with special reference to the 
embarrassments and difficulties which have grown out of the 
action of the Choctaw Council in the matter of the boarding 
schools. A condensed statement of the action of the Council, 
and of the missionaries and Prudential Committee, previous 
to the sending of the Deputation, seems to be here called for. 

In the year 1842, the Choctaw Council, by law, placed four 
female seminaries "under the direction and management of 
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," 
subject only to " the conditions, limitations, and restrictions 
rendered in the act." In accordance with the act, a contract 
was entered into, by which the schools were taken for a period 
of twenty years. The "conditions, limitations and restric- 



tions " specified in the act and contract, so far as they bind 
the Board, are the following : 1. The superintendents and 
teachers, with their families, shall board at the same table 
with the pupils. 2. In addition to letters, the pupils shall be 
taught housewifery and sewing. 3. One-tenth of the pupils 
are to be orphans, should so many apply for admission. 4. The 
Board shall appropriate to the schools a sum equal to one-sixth 
of the moneys appropriated by the Choctaw Council. With 
these exceptions, the " direction and management " of the 
schools were to be as exclusively with the Board, as of any 
schools supported by the funds of the Board. 

Thus the schools were carried forward until 1853. At the 
meeting of the Council in that year, a new school law, con- 
taining several provisions, (and sometimes spoken of in the 
plural as " laws,") was enacted, bringing the Board, through 
its agents, under new " conditions, restrictions and limita- 
tions." A Board of Trustees was established, and a General 
Superintendent of schools provided for, to discharge various 
specified duties, for the faithful performance of which they are 
to give bonds in the sum of $5,000. The enactments of this 
law, affecting the agents of the Board under the existing 
contract, are the following : 

1. The Board of Trustees, convened by the General Super- 
intendent, are to hear and determine difficulties between a 
trustee and any one connected with the schools ; to judge of 
the fitness of teachers, etc., and request the Missionary Boards 
to remove any whose removal they may think called for ; and, 
in case of neglect to comply with their wishes, to report the 
same to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs throuoh the 
United States Agent. Section 5. 

2. The Trustees are to select the scholars from their sev- 
eral districts. Section 7. 

3. No slave or child of a slave is to be taught to read or 
write "m or at any school," etc., by anyone connected in 
any capacity therewith, on pain of dismissal and expulsion 
from the nation. Section 8. 



4. Annual examinations are to take place at times desig- 
nated by the General Superintendent. Section 10. 

5. The Trustees are empowered to suspend any school in 
case of sickness or epidemics. Section 11. 

6. It is made the duty of the General Superintendent and 
Trustees, promptly to remove, or report for removal, any and 
all persons connected with the public schools or academies 
known to be abolitionists, or who disseminate, or attempt to 
disseminate, directly or indirectly, abolition doctrines, or any 
other fanatical sentiments, which, in their opinion, are danger- 
ous to the peace and safety of the Choctaw people. Section 13. 

By a separate act, the Board of Trustees was authorized to 
propose to the Missionary Boards, having schools under con- 
tract with the Nation, the insertion of a clause providing for 
a termination of the contract by either party on giving six 
months' notice. 

With respect to the question, " Shall we submit to the 
provisions and restrictions imposed by this new legislation, 
as a condition of continued connection with the national 
schools ? " the views of the Prudential Committee and the 
brethren of the mission have been entirely in declared agree- 
ment. As stated in the last Annual Report to the Board, 
(p. 166,) " the Committee decided at once that they could not 
cany on the schools upon the new basis ; and in the propriety 
of this action the missionaries concur." The concurrence of 
the missionaries in this view, viz., that they could not carry 
on the schools with a change from the original basis to that 
of the nev/ law, may be seen clearly expressed in their corres- 
pondence with the Secretary having^ charge of the Indian 
missions; particularly in the following communications : From 
Messrs. Kingsbury and Byington, as the committee of the 
mission, under dates of December 14 and 27, 1853; Mr. 
Kingsbury, January 4, and April 25, 1854; Mr. C. C. Cope- 
land, March 1, 1854; Mr. Stark, August 22, 1854; Mr. 
Edwards, July 13, 1854 ; Mr. H. K. Copeland, May 16, 1854. 
See also letters from Mr. Chamberlain, January 7, and June 



8 

20, 1854. In some of these, the declaration is made, that, in 
the apprehension of the Avriters, the schools must be relin- 
quished, if the law should not he repealed ; one specifying, 
as justificatory reasons, the breach of contract made, and the 
increased difficulty of obtaining teachers — reasons also as- 
signed by others ; another stating that he " never could con- 
sent to take charge of a school under such regulations ; " a 
third testifying', not only for himself, but for every other 
member of the mission, an unwillingness to continue connec- 
tion with the schools with subjection to the new requirements ; 
a fourth affirming his " feeling" to be " that a strong remon- 
strance should be presented to the Council, and on the 
strength of it let the mission lay down these schools ; " which, 
he states, would not involve "giving up the instruction of 
these children, but would be simply changing the plan," inas- 
much as, according to his and others' understanding of the 
case, the new law not having application to other than the 
national schools, " at every station it will be found an easy 
matter to have as large, and in some cases even larger, than 
our present boarding schools." 

In certain other communications, the view which the Com- 
mittee adopted, is exhibited, together with the opinion that it 
would be better to wait for a movement on the part of the 
Choctaw authorities before giving up the schools. See letters 
from Mr. Byington, December 2G, 1853 ; January 3 and 12, 
April 15, 1854; Mr. Kingsbury, February 1 and 21, 1854; 
Mr. Chamberlain, January 13, 1854; Mr. Stark, February 6, 
1854. This view was also formally announced, as understood 
by the Committee, in resolutions of the mission at its meet- 
ing in May, 1854, embracing a recommendation of a course 
of procedure with the hope of securing the repeal by the 
next Council of the obnoxious law. See Minutes, and letters 
of Mr. C. C. Copeland, May 19, and June 9, 1854. The 
Prudential Committee, in the exercise of their discretion, as 
a principal party to the contract, preferred another method, 
viz., to address the Council directly, and sent a letter, under 
date of August 1, 1854, to one of the missionaries for pre- 
sentation. The missionary, with the advice of his brethren 



given at their meeting in September, (intelligence of which' 
was received at the Missionary House, October 20, thirty-five 
days subsequent to the meeting of the Board at Hartford,) 
withheld the letter, on the ground that, in their judgment^ 
its presentation would defeat the object at which it aimed, 
and be " disastrous to the churches, to the Choctaws, and; 
to the best interests of the colored race." In respect to< 
this action for obtaining the repeal of the school law, there* 
was a difference between the mission and the Committee^. 
The missionaries desired delay, and the leaving of the matter 
to their management. The decision of the Committee, ap- 
proved by the Board, " not to conduct the boarding schools in- 
the Choctaw Nation in conformity with the principles prescribed' 
by the recent legislation of the Choctaw Council," * was in^ 
agreement Avith the previously and subsequently expressed- 
sentiments of all the missionaries ; the objection felt by some 
of them to this resolution being, not to the position which it 
assumes, but to the declaration of it at that time by the Board. 
This being a determined question, its settlement formed no 
part of the object for which the Deputation was sent. 

Two other questions, however, required careful examination ; 
and on these free conference was had with the brethren at their 
stations, and in a meeting of the mission held at Good- water, 
April 25 and 26, Mr. Edwards, who was absent from the mis- 
sion, and Dr. Hobbs, not being present: 1. The law remaining 
unrepealed, is it practicable to carry on the schools while 
refusing conformity to the new "conditions, limitations and 
restrictions" imposed by it? 2. If so, is it expedient to do it? 

On the first of these questions, the opinion of the missiona- 
ries was in the affirmative. No attempt has been made to carry 
out these new provisions. The Trustees and General Superin- 
tendent have not given the required bond. One of the Trus- 
tees informed me that he should not give it, and that in his 
belief the law would remain a dead letter, if not repealed, as it 
was his hope that it would be. The course of the missionaries 
has been in no degree changed by it. The teacliing of slaves 

* Resolution of the Board adopted at Harlford. 



10 

in these schools has never been practiced or contemplated. 
The law was aimed at such teaching in their families and 
Sabbath schools. So the missionaries and the people under- 
stand it. It is generally known among the latter that the 
former are ready to give up these schools, rather than retain 
them on condition of subjection to this law. Our brethren 
are now carrying on the schools, and doing in all other 
respects, just as they were before the new law was enacted ; 
and they have confidence that they may continue to do so. 

The second question was one of more uncertainty to my 
own mind, and in the minds of some of the mission. The 
maintenance of these schools is a work of great difficulty. In 
the opinion of several of the missionaries, it was at least 
doubtful whether the cost in health, perplexity, trouble in 
obtaining teachers, time which might be devoted to preaching, 
and money, was not too great for the results ; and it was sug- 
gested that an opportunity, afforded by divine Providence for 
relieving us from a burden too heavy to sustain for nine years 
longer, should be embraced. See letters from Mr. Hotchkin, 
March 21, 1854 ; Mr. H. K. Copeland, January 23, and July 
27, 1854 ; Mr. Lansing, December 22, 1853, and May 13, 1854. 
The fact and manner of the suspension of the school at Good- 
water, in 1853, were portentous of increasing embarrassment 
from other causes than the new school law ; and grave objec- 
tions exist to the connection with civil government of any 
department of missionary operations. 

My observation of the schools, however, interested me much 
in their behalf. They are doing a good work for the nation. 
Many of the pupils become Christian wives, mothers and 
teachers. The people appreciate them highly ; and I was 
assured of a general desire that they should remain in the hands 
of the mission, unsubjected to the inadmissible new conditions 
of the recent legislation. In view of all the relations, which 
after full consideration the subject seemed to have, the follow- 
ing resolution, expressing the sentiment of the Deputation and 
the mission, was cheerfully and unanimously adopted by the 
mission; one of the older members, however, avowing some 
difficulty in giving his assent to the latter part of it, viz : 



11 

*' Resolved, That while we should esteem it our duty to 
relinquish the female boarding schools at Pine Ridge, Whee- 
lock and Stockbridge, rather than to carry them on under the 
provisions and restrictions of the late school law, yet regarding 
it as improbable that the requirement so to do will be enforced, 
we deem it important, in the present circumstances of the 
Choctaw Nation and mission, to continue our connection with 
them on the original basis, and carry them forward with new 
hope and energy." 

Our hope of being allowed to maintain these schools as 
heretofore, and make them increasingly useful, may be disap- 
pointed. Neither the Prudential Committee nor the mission 
wish to retain them, if they for whose benefit alone they have 
been taken, prefer that we should give them up. The relin- 
quishment of them would be a release from a weight of labor, 
anxiety and care, that nothing but our love for the Choctaws 
could induce us longer to bear. Our desire is only to do them 
good. 

A second subject of conference, but the one first considered, 
was the principles, particularly in relation to slavery, on which 
the Prudential Committee, with the formally expressed appro- 
bation of the Board, aim to conduct its missions. I found 
certain misapprehensions existing in the minds of a portion of 
the mission in regard to the origin and circumstances of the 
action of the Board at the last annual meeting, which I was 
happy to correct. Several of the members, including one of 
the two not present at this meeting of the mission, have ever 
cordially approved the correspondence in which the views of 
principles entertained by the Committee were stated. Others, 
being with those just referred to a decided majority of the 
whole body as at present constituted, have expressed their 
agreement with those views as freely explained in personal 
intercourse, with an exhibition of the intended meaning of his 
own written language, by the Secretary who was the organ of 
the Committee in communicating them. Others have supposed 
themselves to differ, in some degree, from these principles 
when correctly apprehended- A full comparison of views, to 



12 

their mutual great satisfaction, showed much less difference 
than was thought to exist between the members of the mission 
themselves, and between a part of the mission and what the 
Deputation understands to be the views of the Prudential Com- 
mittee. A statement of principles draAvn up at Good-water, 
as being in the estimation of the Deputation (distinctly and 
repeatedly so declared) those which the Committee had set 
forth in their correspondence, particularly that had with the 
mission in 1848, was unanimously adopted, as the brethren say, 
" for the better and more harmonious prosecution of the great 
objects of the Choctaw mission on the part of the Prudential 
Committee and the members of the mission, and for the 
removal of any and all existing difficulties which have grown 
out of public discussions and action on the subject of slavery ; 
it being understood that the sentiments now approved are not 
in the estimation of the brethren of the mission new, but such 
as for a long series of years have really been held by them." 

The statement is given, with the appended resolution, in 
the following words : 

1. Slavery, as a system, and in its own proper nature, is 
what it is described to be, in the General Assembly's Act of 
1818, and the Report of the American Board adopted at Brook- 
lyn in 1845. 

2. Privation of liberty in holding slaves is, therefore, not 
to be ranked Avith things indifferent, but with those which, if 
not made right by special justificatory circumstances and the 
intention of the doer, are morally wrong. 

3. Those are to be admitted to the communion of the church, 
of whom the missionary and (in Presbyterian churches) his 
session have satisfactory evidence that they are in fellowship 
with Christ. 

4. The evidence, in one vieAv of it, of fellowship with Christ, 
is a manifested desire and aim to be conformed, in all things, 
to the spirit and requirements of the word of God. 

5. Such desire and aim are to be looked for in reference to 
slavery, slaveholding, and dealing with slaves, as in regard to 
other matters ; not less, not more. 



13 

G. The missionary must, under a solemn sense of responsi- 
bility to Christ, act on his own judgment of that evidence 
when obtained, and on the manner of obtaining it. He is at 
liberty to pursue that course which he may deem most discreet 
in eliciting views and feelings as to slavery, as with respect to 
other things, right views and feelings concerning which he 
seeks as evidence of Christian character. 

7. The missionary is responsible, not for correct views and 
action on the part of his session and church members, but only 
for an honest and proper endeavor to secure correctness of 
views and action under the same obligations and limitations 
on this subject as on others. He is to go only to the extent of 
his rights and responsibilities as a minister of Christ. 

8. The missionary, in the exercise of a wise discretion as 
to time, place, manner and amount of instruction, is decidedly 
to discountenance indulgence in known sin and the neglect 
of known duty, and so to instruct his hearers that they may- 
understand all Christian duty. With that wisdom which is 
profitable to direct, he is to exhibit the legitimate bearing of 
the gospel upon every moral evil, in order to its removal in 
the most desirable way ; and upon slavery, as upon other moral 
evils. As a missionary, he has nothing to do Avith political 
questions and agitations. He is to deal alone, and as a Chris- 
tian instructor and pastor, with what is morally wrong, that the 
people of God may separate themselves therefrom, and a right 
standard of moral action be held up before the world. 

9. While, as in war, there can be no shedding of blood 
without sin somewhere attached, and yet the individual soldier 
may not be guilty of it ; so, while slavery is always sinful, we 
cannot esteem every one who is legally a slaveholder a wrong- 
doer for sustaining the legal relation. When it is m.ade una- 
voidable by the laws of the State, the obligations of guardian- 
ship, or the demands of humanity, it is not to be deemed an 
offence against the rule of Christian right. Yet missionaries 
are carefully to guard, and in the proper way to warn others- 
to guard, against unduly extending this plea of necessity or the 
good of the slave, against making it a cover for the love and. 

2 



14 

practice of slavery, or a pretence for not using efforts that are 
lawful and practicable to extinguish this evil. 

10. Missionaries are to enjoin upon all masters and servants 
obedience to the directions specially addressed to them in the 
Holy Scriptures, and to explain and illustrate the precepts 
containing them. 

11. In the exercise of discipline in the churches, under 
the same obligations and limitations as in regard to other 
acts of Avrong-doing, and which are recognized in the action 
of ministers with reference to other matters in evangelical 
churches where slavery does not exist, missionaries are to 
set their faces against all overt acts in relation to this sub- 
ject, which are manifestly unchristian and sinful ; such as the 
treatment of slaves with inhumanity and oppression ; keeping 
from them the knowledge of God's holy will ; disregarding 
the sanctity of the marriage relation ; trifling with the affec- 
tions of parents, and setting at naught the claims of children 
on their natural protectors ; and regarding and treating human 
beings as articles of merchandise. 

12. For various reasons, we agree in the inexpediency of 
our employing slave labor in other cases than those of manifest 
necessity ; it being understood that the objection of the Pru- 
dential Committee to the employment of such labor is to that 
extent only. 

13. Agreeing thus in essential principles, missionaries asso- 
ciated in the same field should exercise charity towards each 
other, and have confidence in one another, in respect to differ- 
rences which, from diversity of judgment, temperament, or 
other individual peculiarities, and from difference of circum- 
stances in which they are placed, may arise among them in 
the practical carrying out of these principles ; and we think 
that this should be done by others towards us as a missionary 
body. 

Resolved, That we agree in the foregoing as an expression 
of our views concerning our relations and duties as missiona- 
ries in regard to the subject treated of; and are happy to 
believe that, having this agreement with what we now under- 
stand to be the views of tlie Prudential Committee, we may 



15 

have their confidence, as they have ours, in the continued 
prosecution together of the great work to which the great 
Head of the church has called us among this people. 

Tlie statement thus approved was read throughout, and was 
afterwards considered in detail, each member of the mission 
expressing his views upon it as fully, and keeping it under 
consideration as long, as he desired to do. After the assent 
given to it, article by article, on the day following it was again 
read, and the question was taken upon it as a whole, with the 
appended resolution, each of the eight members giving his 
vote in favor of its adoption. It is perhaps proper also to 
mention that no change by way of emendation, addition or 
omission of phraseology was found necessary to make it such 
as any member of the mission would be willing to accept. It 
should farther be stated, that while the first article was under 
consideration, the act of the General Assembly of the Presby- 
terian church, adopted in 1818, was read, and its strongest 
expressions duly weighed. The document thus considered 
and referred to, is herewith submitted as a part of this report.* 

* " The General Assembly of llie Presbyterian Church, having taken into 
consideration the subject of slavery, think proper to make known their sen- 
timents upon it to the churches and people under their care. We consider 
the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by another, as a gross 
violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human nature 3 as utterly 
inconsistent with the law of God, which requires us to love our neighbor as 
ourselves, and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the 
gospel of Christ, which enjoins that ' all things whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so to them.' Slavery creates a paradox 
in the moral system ; it exhibits rational, accountable and immortal beings 
in such circumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral action. 
It extiibils them as dependent on the will of others, whether they shall 
receive religious instruction; whether they shall know and worship the 
true God ; whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the Gospel; whether 
they shall perform the duties and che/ish the endearments of husbands and 
wives, parents and children, neighbors and friends; whether they shall 
preserve their chastity and purity, or regard the dictates of justice and 
humanity. Such are some of the consequences of slavery— consequences 
not imaginary, but which connect themselves with its very existence. The 
evils to which the slave is always exposed often take place in fact, and in 
their very worst degree and form ; and where all of them do not take 
place, as we rejoice to say in many instances, through the influence of the 
pri.ciples of humanity and religion on the mind of masters, they do not— 



16 

So also was adduced the abundant testimony contained in 
the Report of the American Board adopted in 1 845. as to what 
in its view slavery, without qualification of place or time, and 
as it exists in the United States and among the Indians, is : 
such as its classification of slavery with war, polygamy, the 



still the slave is depiived of his natural right, degraded as a human being, 
and exposed to the danger of passing into the hands of a master who may 
inflict upon him all the hardships and injuries which inhumanity and avarice 
may suggest. 

" From this view of the consequences resulting from the practice into 
which Christian people have most inconsistently fallen, of enslaving a 
portion of their brethren of mankind — for 'God hath made of one blood all 
nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth' — it is manife^tly the duty 
of all Christians who enjoy the light of the present day, when the incon- 
sistency of slavery, both with the dictates of humanity and religion, has 
been demonstrated, and is generally seen and acknowledged, to use their 
honest, earnest, and unwearied endeavors, to correct the errors of former 
limes, and as speedily as possible to efface this blot on our holy religion, 
and to obtain the complete abolition of slavery throughout Christendom, 
and if possible throughout the world. 

" We rejoice that the Church to which we belong commenced, as early 
as any other in this country, the good work of endeavoring to put an end 
to slavery, and that in the same work many of its members have ever 
since been, and now are, among the most active, vigorous and efficient 
laborers. We do, indeed, tenderly sympathize with those portions of our 
Church and our country where the evil of slavery has been entailed upon 
them; where a great, and the most virtuous part of the community abhor 
slavery, and wish its exienninalion as sincerely as any others — but where 
the number of slaves, their ignorance, and their vicious habits generally, 
render an immediate and universal emancipation inconsistent alike with the 
safety and happiness of the master and the slave. With those who are thus 
circumstanced, we repeat that we tenderly sympathize. At the same time 
we earnestly exliort them to continue, and if possible to increase their exer- 
tions to effect a total abolition of slavery. We exhort them to suffer no 
greater delay to take place in this most interesting concern, thau a regard 
to the public welfare truly and indispensably demands. 

" As our country has inflicted a most grievous injury on the unhappy 
Africans, by bringing them into slavery, we cannot indeed urge that we 
should add a secouil injury to the first, by emancipating them in such man- 
ner as that they will be likely to destroy themselves or others. But we do 
think, that our country ought to be governed in this matter by no other 
consideration tlian an honest and impartial regard to the happiness of the 
injured party, uninfluenced by the expense or inconvenience which such a 
regard may involve. We, therefore, warn all who belong to our denomi- 
nation of Christians against unduly extending this plea of necessity; against 



17 

castes of India, and other things which it speaks of as " social 
and moral evils ; " and such language as the following : " The 
Committee do not deem it necessary to discuss the general 
subject of slavery as it exists in these United States, or to 
enlarge on the wickedness of the system, or on the disastrous 



making it a cover for the love and practice of slavery, or a pretence for not 
using efforts that are lawful and practicable, to extinguish this evil. 

" And we, at the same time, exhort others to forbear harsh censures, and 
uncharitable reflections on their brethren, who unhappily live among slaves 
whom they cannot immediately set free ; but who, at the same time, are 
really using all their influence, and all their endeavors, to bring them into 
a state of freedom, as soon as a door for it can be safely opened. 

" Having thus expressed our views of slavery, and of the duty indispen- 
sably incumbent on all Christians to labor for its complete extinction, we 
proceed to recommend — and we do it with all the earnestness and solemnity 
which this momentous subject demands — a particular attention to the fol- 
lowing points. 

" We recommend to all our people to patronize and encourage the 
Society lately formed for colonizing in Africa, the laud of their ancestors, 
the free people of color in our country. We hope that much good may 
result from the plans and efforts of this Society. And while we exceedingly 
rejoice to have witnessed its origin and organization among the holders of 
slaves, as giving an unequivocal pledge of their desires to deliver them- 
selves and their country from the calamity of slavery ; we hope that those 
portions of the American union, whose inhabitants are by a gracious Provi- 
dence more favorably circumstanced, will cordially, and liberally, and 
earnestly co-operate with their brethren, in bringing about the great end 
contemplated. 

" We recommend to all the members of our religious denomination, not 
only to permit, but to facilitate and encourage the instruction of their slaves 
in the principles and duties of the Christian religion ; by granting them 
liberty to attend on the preaching of the gospel, when they have oppor- 
tunity j b}' favoring the instruction of them in the Sabbath school, wherever 
those schools can be formed ; and by giving them all other proper advan- 
tages for acquiring a knowledge of their duty both to God and to man. 
We are perfectly satisfied that it is incumbent on all Christians to com- 
municate religious instruction to those who are under their authority 3 so 
that the doing of this in the case before us, so far from operating, as some 
have apprehended that it might, as an incitement to insubordination and 
insurrection, would, on the contrary, operate as the most powerful means 
for the prevention of those evils. 

" We enjoin it on all church sessions and presbyteries, under the care of 

this Assembly, to discountenance, and as far as possible to prevent all 

cruelty of whatever kind in the treatment of slaves 3 especially the cruelty 

of separating husband and wife, parents and children, and that which con- 

* 



18 

moral and social influences which slavery exerts upon the less 
enlightened and less civilized communities where the mission- 
aries of this Board are laboring : " " The unrighteousness of 
the principles on which the whole system is based, and the 
violation of the natural rights of man, the debasement, wick- 
edness and misery it involves, and which are in fact witnessed 
to a greater or less extent wherever it exists, must call forth 
the hearty condemnation of all possessed of Christian feeling 
and sense of right, and make its removal an object of earnest 
and prayerful desire to every friend of God and man:" 
" Strongly as your committee are convinced of the wrongful- 
ness and evil tendencies of slaveholding, and ardently as they 
desire its speedy and universal termination, still they cannot 
think that in all cases it involves individual guilt in such a 
manner that every person implicated in it can, on scriptural 
grounds, be excluded from Christian fellowship. In the lan- 
guage of Dr. Chalmers, ' Distinction ought to be made 
between the character of a system, and the character of the 
persons whom circumstances have implicated therewith; nor 
would it always be just, if all the recoil and horror wherewith 
the former is contemplated, were visited in the form of condem- 
nation and moral indignancy upon the latter. Slavery we 
hold to be a system chargeable with atrocities and evils, often 
the most hideous and appalling which have either afflicted or 
deformed our species ; yet we must not, therefore, say of every 
man born within its territory, who has grown up familiar with 
its sickening spectacles, and not only by his habits been 



sists in selling slaves to those who will eitlier themselves deprive these 
unhappy people of the blessings of the gospel, or who will tran^-port them 
to places where the gospel is not proclaimed, or where it is forbidden to 
slaves to attend upon its institutions. And if it shall ever happen that a 
Christian professor in our communion shall sell a slave who is also in com- 
munion and good standing with our church, contrary to his or her will and 
inclination, it ought immediately to claim the particular attention of the 
proper church judicature; and unless there be such peculiar circumstances 
attending the case as can but seldom happen, it ouo;lit to be followed, with- 
out delay, by a suspension of the offender from all the privileges of the 
church, till he repent, and make all the reparation in his power to the injured 
party." See Assembly's Digest, pp. 27 1-8. 



19 

inured to its transactions and sights, but who by inheritance is 
himself the owner of slaves, that unless he make the resolute 
sacrifice, and renounce his property in slaves, he is, therefore, 
not a Christian, and should be treated as an outcast from all 
the distinctions and privileges of Christian society.' " And 
the language (quoted approvingly) unanimously uttered by the 
General Assembly of the I'ree Church of Scotland : " With- 
out being prepared to adopt the principle that, in the circum- 
stances in Avhich they are placed, the churches in America 
ought to consider slaveholding per se an insuperable bamer 
in the way of enjoying Christian privileges, or an offence to 
be visited with excommunication, all must agree in holding 
that whatever rights the civil law of the land may give a mas- 
ter over his slaves as chattels personal, it cannot be but sin 
of the deepest dye to regard and treat them as such ; and who- 
soever commits that sin in any sense, or deals other^vise than 
as a Christian man ought to deal with his fellow-man, whatever 
poAver the law may give him over them, ought to be held dis- 
qualified for Christian communion. Farther, it must be the 
opinion of all, that it is the duty of Christians, when they find 
themselves unhappily in the predicament of slaveholders, to 
aim, as far as it may be practicable, at the manumission of 
their slaves ; and when that cannot be accomplished, to secure 
them in the enjoyment of the domestic relations, and of the 
means of religious training and education." 

All this, and more, was immediately before the minds of 
the members of the mission, and with so much of the connec- 
tion as to give the true sense, when they declared that slavery 
is what, in the documents referred to, it is described to be, 
and made their ov/n the statement of principles above given, 
as those on which, as missionaries, they should deal with this 
subject in the circumstances of their field of labor, and when 
it is to them a practical missionary question. 

The Cherokee mission in session at Park Hill, May 9, adopted 
a resolution of concurrence with the Choctaw mission in ap- 
proving this statement. 

Excluding two churches then connected with the mission of 
the Board, and since transferred to another mission, there 



20 

were in 1848, under the care of the American Board, in the 
Choctaw Nation, six churches with a total membership of 536 
persons, of whom 25 were slaveholders, and 64 were slaves. 
The churches are now 11 in number, containing 1,094 mem- 
bers ; of whom, as nearly as I could ascertain, 20 are slave- 
holders, (some of them being husband and wife, and generally 
having but one or two slaves each,) and 60 are slaves. Six of 
the churches have no slaveholder in them ; two have but one 
each. Of the slaveholders in these churches, four have been 
admitted since 1848 ; one by transfer from another denomina- 
tion, and three on profession of their faith ; none of the latter 
having been received since 1850. Statements were made to 
me respecting each of these latter cases, which show that the 
principles assented to by the mission at Good-water, as above 
presented, were practically carried out in regard to them. 

In the Cherokee mission, in 1848, there were five churches, 
having 237 members, of whom 24 were slaveholders, and 23 
were slaves. In the five churches now in that mission, there 
are 207 members, of Avhom 17 (there is uncertainty in regard 
to one of this number) are reported as slaveholders. Three 
have been admitted since 1848 on profession of their faith, 
and two by letter ; one of the latter from a church in New 
Hampshire. Of these the same remark may be made as above 
in respect to similar cases among the Choctaws. 

The ChoctaAv mission embraces eleven families and three 
large boarding schools. Five slaves, hired at their own desire, 
are in the employment of the missionaries. A less number 
are employed in the Cherokee mission. Gladly would the 
missionaries dispense with these, could the necessary amount 
of free labor for domestic service be obtained. Those who 
employ this slave labor, allege that it is to them a matter of 
painful necessity. They are known to resort to it unwillingly, 
and are not regarded as thereby giving their sanction to 
slavery. Some thus employed have been brought to a saving 
knowledge of divine truth. 

The sentiments of these two missions as to the moral char- 
acter of slavery, and the principles on which they should act 
with regard to it, are frankly and unequivocally avowed. 



21 

We are bound to believe them honest in the expression of 
these sentiments. It is their expectation that the principles 
thus acknowledged as their own will be those on which the 
missions will be conducted. The adjudication of particular 
cases must be left to the missionary. That it be so left, is 
his right ; it is also unavoidable. The position of the mission- 
aries is one of great difficulty, and should be appreciated. 
That there is such a diversity of judgment among them as • 
men of independent thought and differing mental character- 
istics, who agree in essential principles, everywhere evince ; 
and that ihey liave, through a use of phraseology leading 
sometimes to a mutual misunderstanding of each other's vieAvs, 
supposed themselves to differ more widely than, in our con- 
ferences, they found themselves really to do, has been inti- 
mated. That none of them have sympathy with slavery ; that, 
on the other hand, their influence is directly and strongly 
adverse to its continuance, v/hile they are doing much in 
mitigation of its evils and to bless both master and slave, in 
the judgment of the Deputation, is beyond a doubt. By 
many they are denounced as abolitionists. Some of their 
slave-holding church members have left their churches for 
another connection on this account. Others have disconnected 
themselves from a system vrhich they have learned to dislike 
and disapprove. Strong in the confidence and affection of 
many for whose salvation they have toiled and suffered, by the 
supporters of slavery, in and out of the nations, they undoubt- 
edly are looked upon with growing suspicion. Surely we 
should not be Avilling needlessly to emban-ass them in their 
blessed work. They are worthy of the confidence and warm- 
est sympathy of every friend of the red man and of the black 
man. God is with them. In the Cherokee mission, the dis- 
pensation of liis grace is not, indeed, now as in times past ; 
and we have some seriousness of apprehension in regard to 
the progress of the gospel among that people. Still the divine 
presence is not wanting. Among the Choctaws rapid advance 
is making. Converts are multiplying ; the fruits of the gospel 
abound. Both missions need reinforcement. Men filled with 
the spirit of Christ, able to endure hardness, of practical wis- 



22 

dom, which knows how to do good, and not to do only harm 
when good is meant, men of faith, energy, meekness and 
prayer, who will commend themselves to every man's con- 
science in the sight of God as his servants, are required. It 
gave me pleasure to assure the missions of the strong desire 
of the Prudential Committee, and of my future personal en- 
deavors, to obtain such men for them. No philanthropist can 
behold the change which has been wrought for these lately 
pagan, savage tribes, now orderly christianized communities, 
advancing in civilization, to take ere long, if they go on in 
their course, their place with those whose Christian civiliza- 
tion is the grovv'th of many centuries, without admiration and 
delight. But there is much yet to be done for them. " This 
nation," says the Choctaw mission in a published letter, " in 
its improvements, schools, churches, and public spirit pertain- 
ing to the great cause of benevolence, is but an infant.''' We 
must not expect too much from these churches in which we 
glory. Much fostering and training do they yet need ; and 
there are many souls yet to be enlightened and saved. Won- 
derful as are the renovation and elevation Avliich the gospel, 
taught in its simplicity by fiiithful men, has already given to 
these communities, our only hope for them, and for the colored 
race in the midst of them, is in the continued application of 
the same power through the same instrumentality. 

It was the privilege of the Deputation to spend a part of 
three days, including a Sabbath, at Spencer Academy, an 
institution containing one hundred male pupils, excellently 
managed under the charge of the Board of the General Assem- 
bly ; and to attend there a " big meeting," or a camp meeting, 
at which several hundreds were present. My intercourse 
with brethren at that station, and the scenes in which I there 
mingled ; the fellowship in Christ with the heralds of his cross, 
some of them bowed with the weight of many years of wear- 
ing toil and afiliction, and hastening to their glorious crown 
already won by honored names, no longer with them, of our 
own mission ; and the interchange of sympathy with the disci- 
ples of Christ, whom God has given them as the fruit of their 
labor, will ever live among the pleasantest recollections of my 



..ofG. 



23 

life. I am constrained to repeat my testimony to the fraternal 
and Christian spirit with which the brethren met my endeavors 
to remove difficulties, strengthen the ties that bind them and 
the Board together, and clear the way for harmonious and more 
energetic prosecution of the great work in which we are 
associated. To a good degree this object, we may hope, has 
been gained. To Him, whose is their work and ours, and to 
whom the interests involved are infinitely more precious than 
to any of us who are connected with them, we commit the 
future keeping of this great trust. 

It is due to the ChoctaAv mission that I communicate to the 
Committee the following resolution, presented by the Rev. Mr. 
Byington, and adopted by the mission at the close of its meet- 
ing at Good-water : 

" Resolved, That the cordial thanks of the members of the 
mission be presented to the Rev. Geo. W. Wood, the Secre- 
tary of the A. B. C. F. M., who is with us as a Deputation 
from the Prudential Committee, for his kind, wise and success- 
ful efforts in our mission to remove tlie weight of anxiety 
which has long pressed down our hearts in connection with 
the subject of slavery. We now rejoice much in this mutual 
and kind interchange of thoughts and affections. We would 
pray for grace ever to walk in the path of life, and that bless- 
ings may attend him, while with us and on his way home, his 
family and brethren during his absence, as well as our mission 
and the American Board and all its officers. With peculiar 
sincerity of heart and gratitude to our Savior, we present to 
him this token of regard for our dear brother, and make this 
record of divine mercy toward our mission." 

All which is respectfully submitted, 

Geo. W. Wood. 

Roo77is of the A. B. C. F. M., Neio York, June 13, 1855. 

This communication of the Prudential Committee was 
referred to a special committee, consisting of Dr. Beman, 
Dr. Thomas De Witt, Dr. Havves, Chief Justice Wil- 
liams, Doct. Lyndon A. Smith, Dr. J. A. Stearns, and 

Hon. Linus Child, who subsequently made the following 
report : 

Your committee have endeavored to look at this paper in its 
intrinsic character and practical bearings, and they are happy 



24 

to state their unanimous conviction, that tliis visit will mark 
an auspicious era in the history of these missions. The report 
of Mr. Wood is characterized by great clearness and preci- 
sion ; and it presents the whole matters pending between the 
Prudential Committee and these missions fully before us. The 
conferences of the Deputation with the missionaries appear to 
have been conducted in a truly Christian spirit ; and the results 
which are set forth in the resolutions, adopted with much 
deliberation and after full discussion, are such as we may all 
hail with Christian gratitude. 

It is the opinion of your committee that the great end which 
has been aimed at by the Prudential Committee in their cor- 
respondence with these missions, for several years past, and 
by the Board in their resolutions adopted at the last annual 
meeting, has been substantially accomplished. While your 
committee admit that there may be some incidental points on 
which an honest diversity of opinion may exist, yet they fully 
believe that this adjustment should be deemed satisfactory, 
and that farther agitation is not called for. While your com- 
mittee cannot take it upon themselves to predict what new 
developments, calling for new action hereafter, may take place, 
they are unanimously of the opinion that the Prudential Com- 
mittee, and these laborious and efficient missionaries on this 
field of Christian effort, may go forward, on the basis adopted, 
in perfect harmony in the prosecution of their future work. 

Your committee feel that the thanks of this Board are due 
to Mr. Wood and our missionary brethren, for the manner in 
which they have met, considered, and adjusted these difficult 
matters which have long been in debate ; and at the same time 
they would not forget that God is the source of all true light 
in our deepest darkness, and that to him all the glory is ever 
due. 

The foregoing report of the select committee was 
adopted by the Board. 



H 154 82 4 







Ho^ 




i6 




"oK 






^)k ' ' ♦ • • * V 



' <^ 




HO* 




?» 

^<^ 














-On/*. 



AO^ 



